Sedi Walks Back ‘Crazy’ Talk
Wilfred Elrington
Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington rubbed many the wrong way on July fifth when he used the word crazy to describe those who would vote ‘NO’ in respect of the upcoming I.C.J. referendum. Among those is the Belize Territorial Volunteers, which translated the minister’s statement to mean that government is embarking on a biased campaign in favor of taking the Belize/Guatemala territorial dispute before The Hague for resolution. That view is widely shared. Today, in a rare mea culpa, the foreign minister walked back the controversial comment and has since gone on record to say that he was referring to himself as crazy not to vote in favor of a peaceful, judicial solution.
Wilfred Elrington, Foreign Minister
“At the last interview that I had, I had used the expression that one would have to be crazy or that you would have to be crazy to vote no to going to the ICJ and I thought I wanted to clarify that because I heard that some people were very offended and some people who were very near and dear to me were offended by what I said. And so, I thought I may well have misspoken. What I should have said and what I really wanted to say was, given the wealth of knowledge on this subject, the fact that I’ve been dealing with it for over sixty years, the fact that I am very well seized of the facts, as well as the history, as well as the law, I would be crazy, I, Wilfred Elrington, would be crazy to contemplate voting no. To me, it is the most natural, rational, proper thing to say yes. And so, that is what I intended to say, but it is not always that I was able to articulate that given the circumstances of some of those interviews. It was not that I wanted to be or intended to be disrespectful to the Belizean people and I have always relied on the intelligence of the Belizean people to make up their own minds once they are given the facts. So it was not that I was saying or intending to say that the Belizean people would be crazy to vote no, I would be crazy to vote no given all that I know, both law, facts and, of course, history.”
